When Napoleon I abdicated on 4 April 1814, he named his son as Emperor. However, the coalition partners that had defeated him refused to acknowledge his son as successor, thus Napoleon I was forced to abdicate unconditionally a number of days later. Although Napoleon II never actually ruled France, he was briefly the titularEmperor of the French in 1815 after the fall of his father. When his cousin Louis-Napoléon Bonaparte became the next emperor by founding the Second French Empire in 1852, he called himself Napoleon III to differentiate himself from Napoleon II and his brief reign.

Between 8 and 9 o'clock at night on 19 March 1811, Empress Marie Louise began to experience the first pains of labour. The princes and princesses of the family, as well as the grand dignitaries, ministers, grand officers of the crown, grand officers of the Empire and the ladies and officers of the household, informed of this by the lady-in-waiting, assembled at the Tuileries Palace.[1] On 20 March, at 9:20 in the morning, a baby boy weighing 9 pounds (4.1 kg), with a height of 20 inches (51 cm), was born at the Tuileries Palace. He was ondoyed (a traditional French ceremony which can relate to a concise baptism) by Joseph Fesch with his full name of Napoleon François Charles Joseph.[2]

[...] the baptism ceremony was beautiful and impressive; the scene in which the emperor took the infant from the arms of his noble mother and raised him up twice to reveal him to the public [thus breaking from traditional, as he did at his coronation] was loudly applauded; in the monarch's manner and face could be seen the great satisfaction that he took from this solemn moment.[2]

As the eldest legitimate son of Napoleon I, he was already constitutionally the Prince Imperial and heir apparent, but the Emperor also gave his son the style of His Majesty the King of Rome. Three years later, the First French Empire, to which he was the heir, collapsed.

On 29 March 1814, accompanied by her suite, Marie Louise left the Tuileries Palace with her son. Their first stop was the Château de Rambouillet; then, fearing the advancing enemy troops, they continued on to the Château de Blois. On 13 April, with her suite much diminished, Marie Louise and her three-year-old son were back in Rambouillet, where they met her father, the Emperor Francis I of Austria, and the Emperor Alexander I of Russia. On 23 April, escorted by an Austrian regiment, mother and son left Rambouillet and France forever, for their exile in Austria.[4]

In 1815, after his defeat at Waterloo, Napoleon I abdicated for the second time in favour of his four-year-old son, whom he had not seen since his exile to Elba. The day after Napoleon's abdication, a Commission of Government of five members took the rule of France,[5] awaiting the return of King Louis XVIII, who was in Le Cateau-Cambrésis.[6] The Commission held power for two weeks, but never formally summoned Napoleon II as Emperor or appointed a regent. The entrance of the Allies into Paris on 7 July brought a rapid end to his supporters' wishes. Napoleon II was residing in Austria with his mother and was probably never aware at the time that he had been proclaimed Emperor on his father's abdication.

From the spring of 1814 onwards, Napoleon lived in Austria and was known as "Franz", his second given name. In 1818, he was awarded the title of Duke of Reichstadt by his maternal grandfather, Emperor Francis. He was educated by a staff of military tutors and developed a passion for soldiering, dressing in a miniature uniform like his father's and performing maneuvers in the palace. At the age of 8, it was apparent to his tutors that he had chosen his career.

By 1820, Napoleon had completed his elementary studies and begun his military training, learning German, Italian and math as well as receiving advanced physical training. His official army career began at age 12, in 1823, when he was made a cadet in the Austrian Army. Accounts from his tutors describe Napoleon as intelligent, serious and focused. Additionally, he was a very tall young man: he had grown to nearly 6 feet by the time he was 17.

His budding military career gave some concern and fascination to the monarchies of Europe and French leaders over his possible return to France. However, he was allowed to play no political role and instead was used by Austrian ChancellorKlemens von Metternich in bargaining with France to gain advantage for Austria. Fearful of anyone in the Bonaparte family regaining political power, Metternich even rejected a request for Franz to move to warmer climate in Italy. He received another rejection when his grandfather refused to allow him to be part of the army traveling to Italy to put down a rebellion.[7]

Upon the death of his stepfather, Adam Albert von Neipperg, and the revelation that his mother had borne two illegitimate children to him prior to their marriage, Franz grew distant with his mother and felt that his Austrian family were holding him back to avoid political controversy. He said to his friend, Anton von Prokesch-Osten, "If Josephine had been my mother, my father would not have been buried at Saint Helena, and I should not be at Vienna. My mother is kind but weak; she was not the wife my father deserved".[8]

In 1831, Franz was given command of an Austrian battalion, but he never got the chance to serve in any meaningful capacity. In 1832, he caught pneumonia and was bedridden for several months. His poor health eventually overtook him and on July 22, 1832, Franz died of tuberculosis at Schönbrunn Palace in Vienna.[9] He left no issue, thus the Napoleonic claim to the throne of France was taken over by his cousin, Louis-Napoléon Bonaparte, who later successfully restored the empire as Napoleon III.

On 15 December 1940, Adolf Hitler ordered the remains of Napoleon II to be transferred from Vienna to the dome of Les Invalides in Paris.[10][11] The remains of Napoleon I had been returned to France in December 1840, at the time of the July Monarchy.[12] For some time, the remains of the young prince who had briefly been an emperor rested beside those of his father. Later, the prince's remains were moved to the lower church.

While most of his remains were transferred to Paris, his heart and intestines remained in Vienna, which is traditional for members of the Habsburg house. They are in Urn 42 in the "Heart Crypt" (Herzgruft) and his viscera are in Urn 76 of the Ducal Crypt.

Pet Shop Boys used him as an emblem of loneliness amid wealth in their 2009 track "King of Rome," on their album Yes.

The journalist Henri Rochefort joked that Napoleon II, having never really governed, was France's best leader, since he brought no war, taxes or tyranny.[13]

He was noted for his friendship with Sophie, a Bavarian princess of the House of Wittelsbach.[14] Intelligent, ambitious and strong-willed, Sophie had little in common with her husband Franz Karl. There were rumors of a relationship between Sophie and Franz, as well as the possibility that Sophie's second son Maximilian I of Mexico (born 1832) was the result of their reciprocal involvement.